{"id":8296,"date":"2014-07-15T13:57:40","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T11:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/?p=8296"},"modified":"2014-07-17T12:51:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T10:51:58","slug":"north-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/2014\/07\/15\/north-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights NGOs: Concerns for Safety of Civilians in the Northern Gaza Strip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine human rights organizations – The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, B’tselem, Adalah, Amnesty International – Israel, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights, The Public Committee Against Torture, Yesh Din and the Center for the Defence of the Individual<\/strong> – sent a letter today to the Minister of Defence, the Chief Military Advocate General and the Attorney General. The letter explains that calling on civilian residents of the Northern Gaza Strip to evacuate the area raises serious concerns that planned army operations are likely to bring about civilian deaths and widespread destruction to property. The organizations emphasized in the letter that the IDF must operate according to international humanitarian law that prohibits causing intentional harm to a civilian population, including civilian property, and that providing advance notice does not enable the army to refer to the entire area as though it was sterile and attack civilian institutions.<\/p>\n

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\n14 July 2014<\/p>\n

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Mr. Moshe Ya’alon \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Mr. Danny Efroni \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Mr. Yehuda Weinstein
\n<\/b>Minister of Defense \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Military Advocate General \u00a0 \u00a0 Attorney General
\nBy fax: 03-6976711<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0By fax: 03-5694526<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By fax 02-6467001<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dear Sirs,
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Re: Calling upon residents to vacate their homes in northern Gaza Strip raises concern of extensive mortal harm to civilians and damage to civilian property<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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On the night between Saturday, 12 July 2014, and Sunday, 13 July 2014, the Israeli military began dispersing leaflets in the northern Gaza Strip, particularly in the area of Beit Lahiya, which announced its plan to carry out air strikes on an area marked in an attached map. Residents were told to evacuate the area and make their way on foot towards Jabalya refugee camp by noon yesterday (13 July). The leaflet noted that the planned action was to be short.
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Based on previous military operations in the Gaza Strip, and on military actions that followed similar instructions for evacuation, we \u2013 the undersigned organizations \u2013 hereby voice grave concern that the military’s planned actions may cause extensive, mortal harm to civilians and much property damage.
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The military is obliged to uphold the provisions of the First Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions, which are considered customary law, and especially articles 51 to 58. Primarily, we wish to underscore the following points:
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